Fire personnel battle a blaze near Mayhill

Sacramento Hotshots and Otero County volunteer firefighters continued Wednesday to contain the estimated 200-acre fire two miles southwest of Mayhill on State Route 130, a Lincoln National Forest spokeswoman said.

Loretta L. Benavidez said the fire is human-caused, but it's 10-percent contained at this time.

Benavidez said Otero County Emergency Management had evacuated about 19 residents from their homes.

Village of Cloudcroft Fire Chief Erich Wuersching said residents were let back into their homes around 8:30 p.m.

Benavidez said the fire started north of State Route 130 between mile markers 18 and 20 around 3:30 P.M. on Wednesday in the Curtis Canyon Dam area.

"It was human-caused, but fire officials are continuing their investigation into the exact cause of the fire," she said. "At this time, there are no reported injuries due to the fire."

New Mexico State Forestry spokesman Dan Ware said the fire is burning on Lincoln National Forest and private land.

Most of the fuel is Pinon Juniper, grass Ponderosa Pine stinger bottoms in the Curtis Canyon.

"It is about 200 acres," Ware said. "Now that the sun is down, temperatures are cooling off and winds are rapidly coming down, they're making good progress on the fire."

Wind gusts of more than 40 mph was pushing the flames to the northwest at times and did push the spot fires across State Route 130.

"It was just one of those wind- driven events," Ware said. "It's just so windy up there. Our first report about 3:30 p.m.

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had the fire at about 1 1/2 acres, then it just took off because of all those winds. It's a very dangerous time of the year. People have been really doing their part in not doing things that's going to cause a fire, but every once in a while, it's going to happen. It's an example of the point that it's not going to take much even though we don't know exactly what caused it, but it was human-caused. With things being as dry as they are, it's not going to take much to get a big fire going."

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